Pianoman is an alias of dance music producer, James Sammon from Bradford, West Yorkshire who got to number 6 in the UK Singles Chart with the hit single "Blurred" in June 1996. His follow-up to "Blurred" released on 3 Beat Records was from a Belinda Carlisle sample of "Live Your Life Be Free", entitled "Party People (Live Your Life Be Free)" and narrowly missed a place in the UK Top 40.
As well as his own commercial releases and remixes Sammon has worked and recorded / remixed musicians such as Ian Brown, Craig David and Donna Air. Pianoman has had many other guises, the most successful being Bass Boyz which was signed to Polydor and reached the number 74 in September 1996, with ""Gunz and Pianos".
The track "Blurred" can be found on many compilation albums including Now That's What I Call Music! 34.
The name Pianoman was first popularized by the Billy Joel song "Piano Man", but this was not the reason for Sammon's use of the name, due to the many records he released during the 1990s (whilst he managed a record shop, and worked on several local Yorkshire pirate radio stations) that were dance music piano anthems, including "That Whitney Tune" featuring samples from "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", a Bolton record shop owner would call Sammon 'Pianoman' whenever they met. This would lead to the use of that name for his future releases, and become his best known moniker.
Although known for the commercial dance sound he has produced tracks and released vinyl in many dance styles, from drum and bass, garage, two step, house and R&B. His first release was "The Happy Hardcore EP" billed as DJ Sammon, the name he took to using during his ten-year stint on pirate radio.
In his twenties, Sammon began on one of Yorkshire's first pirates radio stations, the Bradford based station Paradise City Radio, and worked at several others, including Dream 107.6 FM.
Since 2006 James Sammon along with his writing and producing partner Alan hinton has written, produced and remixed tracks under a variety of aliases covering different genres of dance music. These include Bassline House, House, Hardcore, Euro Dance and Funky House. As of 2008 he was signed to Ministry Of Sound in the U.K. as one half 2 Tyme, a mainly U.K. Bassline house act and co writing original material such as "Missing You", "Aint Your Sweet Thing", "So Hot" and "Tease Me Please Me". Other names used by Sammon to produce Bassline House include, Service Crew, Hidden Agenda and Serious Business.
Alongside his partner Alan Hinton, they are signed as Phonik to AATW Records in the U.K. with a track called "Something Special" which featured Sally Jaxx on vocals. Additional members of Phonik Include Kenny Hayes and Ben Trengrove. Currently James Sammon has his own publishing company called Blurred Music which is administered by Bucks Music Group and a record label called Salford Central Records, which as of June 2009 will have a website.